A Spanish doctor kidnapped in Nigeria’s southeastern city of Enugu on
April 4 has been freed and is in good health, his country’s foreign
ministry and Nigerian police said on Saturday.
Jose Manuel Machimbarrena Corcuera “was freed on Friday,” a ministry
spokesman told AFP, adding: “He is tired but in good health.”
The spokesman said he did not have any details of the circumstances in which the hostage was freed.“We do not know if he is going to stay in Nigeria or return to Spain,” he added.
He said the man had been seized for ransom, citing Spanish Foreign
Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, who had said the “organisation
that he belongs to wants the utmost discretion.”
Spanish media reports said the 58-year-old doctor works for a clinic
belonging to a foundation financially supported by Catholic institution
Opus Dei in Nigeria.
Nigerian police said the hostage was released Friday in Enugu.“Since his abduction, there has been a serious manhunt by police in
collaboration with other sister security agencies which kept the entire
atmosphere uncomfortable and consequently he was let go by his captors,”
Enugu police spokesman Ebere Amaraizu told AFP.
He did not say if a ransom was paid.
Scores of kidnappings for ransom have occurred in southern Nigeria,
particularly in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, by armed gangs
seeking cash. Most victims have been released unharmed following ransom
payments.
An insurgency by Islamist group Boko Haram, which is concentrated
mainly in northern Nigeria, has left more than 1,000 people dead since
mid-2009.
Authorities blamed the recent deaths of a British and an Italian
hostage in Nigeria’s north on a faction of Boko Haram. A German engineer
was also kidnapped on the outskirts of the northern city of Kano in
January.
The group has not been known to operate in the south of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer.
